It did so, the campaign said, in order to keep up aggressive spending while federal law still required it to use funds raised toward the Republican primary — not the general election.

Romney’s fundraising numbers likely received a boost in August from the Republican National Convention, which was staged at the end of the month. Any fundraising bump Obama received from the Democratic National Convention, which ran during the first week in September, won’t be captured until next month.

The Romney campaign’s August figures do not include money raised by the Republican National Committee, which operates a joint fundraising operation with the Romney campaign.

President Barack Obama, who had not released his August campaign figures as of Thursday afternoon, employs a similar campaign finance set-up with the Democratic National Committee.